Leader behind Planned Parenthood videos indicted

He also argued that “buying fetal tissue requires a seller as well”.

The almost three-year Center for Medical Progress investigation was different from previous attempts by pro-life groups to infiltrate Planned Parenthood, she told Esquire.

It’s not clear what government records Merritt and Daleiden supposedly tampered with, or what the circumstances are of Daleiden’s alleged organ purchase. So why would this prosecutor – appointed by Governor Perry, a former judge, a Republican woman – why would this prosecutor want to do this other than to send a message like: I might be a Republican but leave Planned Parenthood alone. The goal was to surreptitiously record videos that could prove the organization had illegally sold fetal tissue for profit. Daleiden’s Twitter profile identifies his residence as Irvine, California, where his group, the Center for Medical Progress, is located.

“The felony charge involves the use of fake drivers” licenses. “CMP’s investigation forced Planned Parenthood, a tax-funded billion dollar corporation, to admit it was harvesting and selling aborted baby parts”.

At first the plan seemed to be working. The Center for Medical Progress identifies itself as a group of “citizen journalists”.

Since its 2015 release, the video in question has been exalted by the likes of Carly Fiorina as proof that Planned Parenthood is a murderous organization absent of ethics that must be shut down, because it appears to depict employees at a Houston clinic talking freely about the sale of fetal tissue for profit. The grand jury’s findings were not what those lawmakers were expecting. A Planned Parenthood board member is a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office, so we definitely suspect the grand jury has been biased. Instead, it concluded that Daleiden and his associate, identified as Sandra Merritt, 62, should be indicted.

“When you’re associated with something that’s as controversial as that, in a state where it’s not supported, I don’t think that court rulings are really going to change the opinions of Arkansans about that practice”, Charlie Collins, State Representative, District 84 said. Operation Rescue has good reason to believe that evidence was never presented to that grand jury.

But Schaffer said Planned Parenthood staff did not respond to Daleiden’s email because they realized he was “either trying to sting them or, if it was honest proposal, that he was breaking the law”.

But yesterday, the Harris County district attorney, Devon Anderson, said that grand jurors had cleared Planned Parenthood of any wrongdoing.

Our local, grassroots organization Pro-Choice South Bend was gratified to hear of the indictment of anti-choice criminals who promoted a falsely negative reputation of Planned Parenthood. “The crime occurred when the offer was made”. And Daleiden was schooled in the science and terminology of fetal tissue research.

Daleiden’s attorney has said the anti-abortion activists will turn themselves in to the Harris County Jail and will plead not guilty.

CMP said it used “the same undercover techniques investigative journalists have used for decades”.

It is unclear what triggered the surprise indictments during the grand jury’s closed-door proceedings, said David Sklansky, faculty co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center and a professor at Stanford Law School.

Daleiden did not return a call for comment.

Planned Parenthood says it abides by a law that allows providers to be reimbursed for the costs of processing tissue donated by women who have had abortions. But in a way, a splashy trial would generate precisely the sort of publicity that Daleiden has sought to draw to a once-arcane issue.

“We don’t punish whistleblowers in cases like these”, said Peter Breen, special counsel with the Thomas More Foundation, a legal aid group representing the activists that has in the past defended anti-abortion groups in court. “Their crusade to punish Planned Parenthood for no good reason will impact thousands of Ohioans who go to city and county health departments for HIV tests, breast and cervical cancer screenings, and medical care to have a healthy pregnancy”.